American Jobs Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Let me add a personal twist to all of this about jobs.

When I grew up in Chicago--I was the daughter of a furniture salesman and a Chicago public schoolteacher--the American Dream was alive and well. On my dad's modest income, we could afford a little house in a quiet, middle class neighborhood.

Back then, a man could work in the steel mills on Chicago's South Side--one good union job with family health care benefits and a decent pension--and really live a middle class life. The family could own a home and buy a car and even send the kids to college. That was the 1950s, and anything seemed possible if you were willing to work hard. Incomes were going up for everyone. Income inequality was shrinking, and Americans were experiencing the greatest growth in living standards in history. For most working families, that American Dream was in reach, and that was the normal.

But today, after decades of attacks on organized labor, the passage of tax policies that favor wealthy individuals and corporations, the growing disparity of income, the squandering of a budget surplus, and the turning of a blind eye to Wall Street greed and recklessness, that dream is drowning in a sea of joblessness. I feel like the Republicans are pushing this as the new normal: that the rich get richer and the rest of the country gets poorer. Fortunately, our President, President Barack Obama, has made it perfectly clear that we are not helpless in the face of our daunting but man-made economic challenges, and he has proposed a jobs bill that will immediately improve people's lives and jump-start the economy.

The answer to this jobs crisis is surprisingly simple. If you want to create jobs, then create jobs, good jobs--jobs that can provide people with a middle class life, that can rebuild our middle class, jobs like the 35,000 schools that under the President's bill will be repaired.

There are children all over this country right now who are sitting in classrooms where the ceilings are crumbling, that have dangerous asbestos in them, that are leaking energy, that don't have the wiring for the new technologies that our children need to succeed in this world and to get those 21st century jobs. We don't have the kind of schools and classrooms in which our children are going to be able to compete in this 21st century world. At the same time, we have hundreds and thousands of construction workers and electricians and boilermakers and maintenance workers who are jobless right now, who are sitting home, unemployed, who are more than willing to roll up their sleeves and give our schoolchildren the kind of classrooms that they deserve.

So here we have a tremendous need, and we have the people who can answer that need. Not only will they be back to work, but it will jump-start our economy and be good for everyone. It is not rocket science. We can do this, and we need to do it now. As the President said, the election isn't until 14 months from now. The Republicans seem to want to adjudicate this issue at that time, but this isn't about politics. This is about all those families who simply want a job. They don't want to be receiving unemployment benefits. As a matter of fact, they want to pay taxes.

If we want to reduce the deficit, jobs are the answer once again. Jobs equal deficit reduction. That's why we can't wait to pass this American Jobs Act. We need to enlist the help of all Americans to call their Members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats--I'm talking about the people out there regardless of party--to say, ``We need to pass this right now.'' This is the way that we can get back to what the normal was when I was growing up, when there was opportunity. People lived a middle class life. Instead, we're watching that middle class disappear and that American Dream slip through our fingers. The economy needs to be revived. The President has the answer. We need to do it now.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. These are jobs that can be created right away. I'm from the Midwest, so we actually have a construction season; but for fixing schools, you can do that around the year, around the calendar. We can put these people to work within a few months. They can be on the job, earning money. This is such a sensible program.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Actually, in discussing this with the administration, the day the bill is signed, the schools can begin the work because the administrative process is very straightforward. This is a very, very important one. We're talking 35,000 schools, perhaps several hundred thousand or a couple hundred thousand men and women going to work immediately to repair our schools. Wouldn't that give us community pride? My school is getting repaired. It's getting a paint job. The toilets are getting fixed and the classroom, the science classroom.

This is community pride. This is American pride in our most basic of investments--the investment in our children.

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. The sign you have there says that poor conditions of their schools interfere with students' learning. So we are also depriving our children of that sense of pride that will motivate them to be good students, to learn, to be ready to take over in this 21st century job market.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source